Short Treks - Things Are Not
by newdivide1701
Summary: Captain Pike must face a tragedy that changes the life of one of his most trusted officer.


On Starbase 17, Captain Christopher Pike hustled down its corridor to the medical section as he saw numerous crew members being examined by the doctors and nurses in the triage area. He could only think about what happened a day prior when he was walking with Commander Una.

"Let's hope you do better than Captain Lucero," Pike joked that made Number One smirk.

"Captain, you know she was cleared on what happened on the Clarke," said Una slightly annoyed in a humourous way with Pike chuckling. "Captain..."

"Una, you're a captain now," said Pike. "You can call me Chris."

"Old habits, sir - Chris," said Una. "Is it true you found your replacement?"

"It is," said Pike. "Lt. Commander James T. Kirk."

"Of the Altamid incident?" said Una with surprise as she stopped in her tracks. "What did Starfleet say?"

"They thought I was crazy," said Pike with Una replying, "I'm not one to question the wisdom of Starfleet."

The statement made Pike chuckle as they continued with him noticing a smirk after that little jab she gave him.

"Una, you could have taken command of the Enterprise," said Pike. "It would have saved me a lot of time looking for a young lieutenant commander who tends to leap before he looks."

"Since we're still rebuilding the fleet, Spock would have said it would have been logical for experienced officers to assume command of these new ships," said Una. She looked at Pike knowing that he knew there was something more to it. "I do appreciate the offer, Chris. But to be honest, it has nothing to do with the misogynistic attitudes the Tellarites have against female captains. Do you remember what you said when you inherited your father's ranch? How it felt like it was always his and never yours? It's the same with the Enterprise. Even though Commander Kirk will be her new captain, the Enterprise will always be yours.

"Besides, having Spock as my first officer would have driven me crazy."

"I can't argue with that," said Pike as he chuckled.

"There she is, the USS Ursa Major, first of her class," said Pike as they reached a viewport at the end of the corridor. Both he and Una looked out the viewport seeing a ship as big as the Enterprise with what looks like a Miranda or Walker class with a Constitution engineering hull and neck attached to the saucer.

As Una looked closer, she saw it was neither a Miranda or a Walker class, but a saucer with 2 cylindrical pods on either side of the aft saucer with the warp drive attached to them below and a large sensor array attached on top.

Pike looked at the ship intensely as though something was bothering him.

"Is the Ursa Major bigger or smaller than the Enterprise?" Pike asked noting it looked like beefed up Constitution class with its muscles flexing downwards like a Klingon ship.

"17.3% bigger," said Una. "The confusion is understandable. Even with the added structures, the saucer's diameter is 13.9m less than the Enterprise, but that constitutes a reduced volume of nearly 20%. And if you factor in the saucer's under curvature of the Constitution class which this ship doesn't -"

"I can see why Spock would drive you crazy."

Pike reached the triage station itself where he picked up a PADD and looked at the list with the casualties from the Ursa Major. It displayed 3 folders on it saying KIA - 8, WIA - 72, and MIA - 2.

He looked away from the PADD seeing in his mind the horrific image of Una being wounded on the screen shouting, "I have to get the ship away!"

He tapped on KIA and looked at the names. He set the PADD down when he heard his name over the intercom. He moved to a terminal, pushed the button and said, "Pike, here."

"Sir, Enterprise is now approaching drydock 1," said a voice over the intercom. Pike replied, "Acknowledged. Pike out."

As Pike moved away from the intercom, he moved to an interactive directory where he typed in the morgue which the directory gave him directions.

As he moved, he only imagined the look on Una's face as she approached her command. Seeing the shuttle craft roll upside down to align itself with the secondary shuttle bay beneath the main bay. After so many years on board the Enterprise where the sense of down was the same throughout the ship, he would have found it quite disorienting just thinking about an upside down shuttle bay.

He smirked and decided to go up to the control centre where the Ursa Major was docked while staying out of the way of the crew.

He heard Una over the intercom requesting permission to depart with the crew clearing the mooring clamps and the robotic arm retracting. He saw the flash of the thrusters firing that moved the ship backwards until it cleared the drydock. The Ursa Major then turned clockwise until it made a full 180° and started up the impulse drive.

Pike then reached the morgue with 8 of the lockers were occupied. The mortician opened the first locker where he pulled out of stasis a severed hand and forearm that had been badly burned. Pike then turned away recalling that horrific scene.

"Standby for warp," said Una over the intercom as Pike listened. As she gave the order, the ship began to move only for Pike to see an explosion that shocked him and many of the crew stood up in horror as the klaxons blared.

"USS Ursa Major, do you read me! Do you read me!" shouted the signal dock. What seemed like an eternity, a glimmer of life came through when a crackly voice said, "Mayday! Mayday! This is Captain Una of the Ursa Major! Starbase 17, do you read me?"

"Captain Una, this is Captain Pike. What happened?'

"We don't know, our starboard nacelle exploded as we tried to enter warp!" said Una as Pike heard she's wincing in pain. "We've got heavy casualties, and..."

Pike's adrenaline spiked when Una went silent for a second. "Oh, god! Our antimatter containment systems are starting to fail! We can't eject the antimatter. All hands, abandon ship! Report to evacuation shuttle bays!"

"Can you zoom in?" shouted Pike. The viewport then showed the Ursa Major. The damage to the starboard nacelle was horrific as whatever happened sheared the nacelle in half and damaged the starboard cylindrical pod and dorsal where the antimatter is kept. Pike watched as panels on the outer rim of the saucer begins to blow away with shuttle crafts similar to the old shuttle pods from the 22nd century flying away from the ship.

Pike moved to one of the stations, "Enterprise, this is Captain Pike. Come in."

"Mr. Spock here, we have already cleared drydock and are en route to the Ursa Major."

"Chris, keep the Enterprise away!" shouted Una as they were finally able to get a visual with the bridge filled with smoke and fire. "We still have impulse power, I have to get the ship away from my crew before she blows!"

"Una, get off that ship!" shouted Pike.

"Chris, this is what you would do!" said Una as the Ursa Major sluggishly powered up her impulse engines.

"And saving your ass is what you would do," said Pike. "Get to a Kelvin pod, NOW!"

"I've got a metal spike in my leg, I can't make it!"

Pike inspected the last body in the morgue as he signed off on the remain. He knew he was trying to keep busy, giving the command staff help as they rescued the Ursa Major's survivors. The intercom went off just as he set the PADD down.

"Pike here," he said. A voice on the other end said, "Captain Una is conscious."

Pike smiled and said, "I'm on my way."

He entered ICU 4 where he saw many of the Ursa Major survivors being treated by the doctors there. He looks around where he saw Una raise her hand to get his attention. He went to her bed, but before he could say anything, Una said, "How did you get me off that ship? The radiation would have reduced transporter range to less than 10km."

"Blame Spock," said Pike. "He ordered Mr. Scott to divert auxiliary and emergency power to the impulse engines to get you and the other survivors off in time, and let the ship's momentum carry you away from the blast."

Una collapsed into her pillow in disbelief. Staring at the ceiling, she said, "Do you know how stupid that was? It... it..."

"It's what I would have done," said Pike. "And, admit it, you would have too. Besides, I never got a chance to tell Spock to abort."

Una just shook her head. After a moment, she said to the ceiling, "This doesn't exactly follow Spock's philosophy of the needs of the many."

"The way Spock sees it, the needs of the many benefited more with your survival," said Pike. "And he said there was a 63% chance of success with minimal damage at the most to the Enterprise."

"Was there?"

"Depends on how you look at it," said Pike. "She had a few scratches from the blast, but diverting all that power overloaded the impulse transformer banks. It took them all day to slow down with thrusters, she depleted two thirds of her polyduranite and quaratum supply. She had to be tractored back in.

"Trust me, you never want to be near an angry Scotsman."

After a brief snort, Una went blank and stared at the ceiling again with Pike seeing a tear starting to shed. She looked at him which he knew what she was going to ask.

"The forensic team here is still trying to verify their preliminary findings, but it looks like it was an undetectable fault in the main plasma injector coupled with a brief phase misalignment in the warp plasma stream," said Pike. "If the misalignment happened anytime before or after entering warp, nothing would have happened.

"Basically it was an honest to God accident. And Scotty thinks it might not happen again for another 100 years or so."

Una unable to hold back the tear wiped her face and went blank again.

"Look, there will be a ship available in a few months once the impulse drive is repaired," said Pike which Una simply shook her head. Pike nodded a little disappointed, but respectful. "I was there where you are after Rigel 7, take all the time you need.

"Ursa Major won't be the last ship to be built. And that ship will need a captain."

He squeezed her hand which she returned with a strong grip that told him she will return that made him smile.

newdivide1701/art/I-know-engineers-they-love-to-change-things-27-827692914

newdivide1701/art/Cargo-transfer-818713883


End file.
